Thinking about hiking up Overlook from Meads Road and continuing to the Devil's Kitchen Lean to area for the night over the holiday weekend. Haven't been to this area in a while. I remember there was a nice camping area kind of up behind the lean to.

1. I think there is a Monastery at the beginning of the Overlook Trail by Meads Rd. Is permission needed to park here overnight?2. Water near the lean to...I think there is a stream running right in front of the lean to. Has anyone been up there recently? Is is flowing? From the map, looks like there's also a source between Overlook and Devil's Kitchen. Is that reliable?

There's a DEC parking lot right across the street from the monastery. No permission needed to park there, although on a holiday weekend, it might be full, particularly with all the day-trippers heading for the ruined hotel and fire tower.

I've never seen the stream run dry in Devil's Kitchen. It's pretty substantial. There are two springs between Overlook and Devil's Kitchen. One is just to the north of Overlook. The other is a piped spring right on the trail a little south of Codfish Point. We've had a lot of wet weather, so I'd be surprised if either one weren't running.

There are a couple of good unofficial campsites near the old haul road to the upper quarry on Plattekill. The road itself is blocked by a brushpile where it leaves the trail. It comes off the Overlook Turnpike directly across from the Codfish Point turnoff. If you whack around the brushpile (which is there to keep the clueless from getting lost) the old road is hikeable.